The Cylon Chronicles
by doctor chocolate thunder
Summary: Calvin is looking to understand the world. the problem is that Calvin is half Cylon. As a historian Calvin is looking to document and understand the world around him. specifically the rise of the Tauri in the universe at large. Primarily a collection of short stories taking place in the rare friends and rise of the phoenix AU. Although we will not necessarily stay there


The Cylon Chronicles

Chapter 1

Memories of an Old Soldier Pt. 1

It was a quiet red morning with a light breeze coming from the north. The day before had been rainy and dreary with the red hues of the upper atmosphere combining with the fresh rain to create a rather beautiful Martian morning. With the trees swaying gently in the breeze, one might mistake this for a quiet morning on any of a number of worlds, but the shortness of the tress made it impossible to mistake this for anywhere but Mars. For Calvin, this was a new experience; while Mars had only had real agriculture for about twenty years, he had never been near the planet before. In fact, he had never been in the Milky Way before. With this in mind he spent a moment gathering his things and getting ready to step onto the world that he had spent so long working to reach. Calvin was a historian and today was his first day of interviews for his newest oral history project. As a member of the Genii historical society he had accepted the honor of researching and writing the history of the Tauri and their emergence in the galaxy. Today would be his first interview of many to come.

Stepping out of his car he immediately noticed the aroma coming from the home directly in front of him. Calvin was not a huge fan of pork and its byproducts - like bacon - that the Tauri were so fond of, but it did remind him that he had not eaten breakfast this morning. The excitement of upcoming interviews and the things he would learn were usually more than enough to cause him to forget simple things like eating. The home itself was fairly ordinary, being only one story and fairly small. It belied the rather important person living here. If Calvin hadn't spoken directly with Mr. Laird he might have thought he was in the wrong place. Knocking quietly on the door, Calvin was surprised to hear Mr. Laird yelling from the back yard.

"Come on around!" He called, just loud enough to be heard. "There is a gate to the right." Calvin moved away from the door and to the right of the house. As he opened the gate, he was taken by how pretty the backyard was. Mr. Laird had a large yard with well-manicured grass and taller trees than were in the front of the house. They were not trees he had seen before. This was the first thing that indicated this man's importance; he reminded himself that he would have to ask about those trees. Beyond the manicured lawn and taller-than-normal trees, the yard rested on the edge of lake Beaderman. It was a pretty lake with blue-red hues and gentle lapping of smallish waves. Calvin did not take much note of it though as he passed around the side of the house and found the man he had been looking for standing next to his grill with spatula in hand.

"Hello Mr. Lavin," he said, raising his hand in greeting. Calvin raised his hand in response and continued to approach.

"Good morning to you, General," he responded.

"Have you eaten breakfast yet?" He asked as Calvin stepped up onto the back deck of the house and approached the General, who now had a fresh plate in his hand.

"I have not, I thought I smelled bacon in the air as I got out of my car," Calvin responded.

"Then you're in luck. I have bacon, eggs, and pancakes. A right and proper American breakfast," he said with a smile as he filled a plate with all three of the choices before him.

"Thank you for this. In my haste, I had forgotten to eat breakfast," Calvin said and set his papers down on the table not ten feet from where General Laird stood.

"All of these were grown here on Mars." He paused as he handed the plate to Calvin and picked up the next plate.

"I see you have four plates…were you expecting someone else?" Calvin was sure that the general had never remarried and he could not think of who else might live close that would be pertinent to their conversation.

"General O'Neill wanted to come over. He heard that we were getting together and said he had to be here and I think his wife, Sam, or General Carter, may be here as well," he explained, then he handed the other plates to Calvin who put them at different places on the table, completing the four table settings.

"I didn't realize that the Generals lived so close," Calvin remarked as they both sat down.

"General O'Neill just recently moved here and General Carter hasn't been home much with her work. Were you aware that they had moved the Milky Way command to Enceladus?" He asked. Just then, they both heard General O'Neill call out as he too came around the side of the house. They stood as the other two Generals came into view. Calvin immediately felt a little off guard.

"Hello Jeremy, how are you this morning?" General O'Neill said, greeting his friend with a firm handshake.

"I'm great. This is Dr. Calvin Lavin, the historian who is here to interview me about a book he is writing." He finished and both Generals shook his hand and then sat down at the table.

"Yes, that's right, I am writing a history of the Tauri in the universe at large for the Genii people. While we have been around for a while, the Genii people know very little about Tauri history and your place in the universe outside of Atlantis and the role you play in Pegasus. I get the honor of introducing my people to your people in a certain way." General O'Neill smiled at that as Carter and Laird both listened intently.

"Am I to understand correctly that you are only half Cylon?" General Carter asked.

"Yes, ma'am. My father was a One. One of the original members of the mission. He met my mother those first few weeks that they met the Genii. I am one of the first children borne from the melding of the two societies," Calvin answered earnestly.

"Do you have any enhanced attributes due to your Cylon lineage?" Carter inquired further.

"A few. I have an eidetic memory and a few other things. We usually try not to bring them up. Conversations usually go badly after we do," he said, putting that topic away quickly. At that prompt General O'Neill cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Part of the reason we wanted to be here was to give a good word for Jeremy. He has been a valuable member of our team from his first day with the SGC till his retirement last year. We also wanted to be here to hear him talk about his first days in the SGC. This is one story he has not talked much about and is not totally clear in the mission reports." He chuckled a bit while General Laird smiled.

"In many ways it was literally a trial by fire. You see, this was my first off-world mission." He stopped to take a sip of his coffee. "At the time, I was a part of the third armored cavalry regiment. We had just finished a tour in Iraq. On Earth we fought a war with another nation as part of what we refer to as the War on Terror," he stopped briefly as General O'Neill stifled a laugh.

"Only politicians could fight a war against a tactic." General Laird smiled at Jack as he continued and the historian looked on.

"Unbeknownst to me and my team General O'Neill had just lost SG-1 again. This time it had been the Ori. They had been taken prisoner while on a planet attempting to convince the local population to not accept the Ori invitation. Apparently the Ori had landed troops and other equipment to pacify the population but had found a somewhat modern population that was ready to accept what they had to offer. When Colonel Mitchell and his team arrived, they were immediately taken captive and given over to the Ori."

Earth: Somewhere outside Baghdad, Iraq

"Laird!" The captain in charge of the squadron called out as he came strolling back from the brigade command post.

"Yes, Sir." I replied as he stepped out of the back of his Bradley fighting vehicle and approached his CO.

"Prepare our vehicle to move out; we have new orders. We are to make our way to the nearest collection point and stow our vehicles."

"Yes, Sir. Are we going home?" I asked, turning to find the rest of the infantry squad and crew.

"No, we have a new mission that will not be divulged until we are Stateside." At that, the captain marched away to inform the rest of our squadron. Within the hour, we were back on the road towards the nearest collection. It was a strange day because by the time we arrived at the collection point there were already two C-130's waiting for us on the airstrip. I knew something must be very serious for us to be this rushed in getting back to the States. Normally after a collection point we would have two days of gear turn in and payload prep and then a day or more of waiting before we would board a plane of some kind and two days of transport back to our home station. It wasn't until we were airborne that we were told we weren't going back to Fort Hood.

"Gentlemen, the commander and I will be passing out some paperwork to all of you. What you are looking at is a non-disclosure agreement," the major announced. "My name is Major Davis and all of you who sign those papers will receive a top secret clearance. Currently only your commanding officer and his XO have such a clearance, but I assure you that all of your loved ones will receive visits from the FBI. The agreements are voluntary for you to sign but rest assured if you do not sign those agreements you will no longer be in this unit." With that he turned to the captain and began to hand out large stacks of paper to each of the troopers in the squadron. It took several hours until everyone had signed their agreements. The few that did not sign had been all but picked up and carried out of the loading bay. They disappeared towards the cockpit, only to be brought back into the loading bay with a parachute attached and then summarily shoved out the door.

"Sir, what are they doing?" I asked Captain Marimac as he walked by, checking on all of us.

"I don't know, Laird. I know as much as you do." He paused. "I am going to find out though." Major Davis came back into the loading bay.

"I want to let all of you know that the men who do not sign the agreement will be escorted off the plane. None of these men have been or will be hurt. We are still over land and they will be picked up by the local authorities. Unfortunately, due to the time sensitive nature of our mission, we do not have time to drop them off somewhere. There are two of you left who haven't signed. What are your decisions, Laird and Marimac?" He asked, approaching us both. The captain sat down next to me and signed his immediately. I did not relish the idea of being literally thrown off the plane so I signed as well.

"Excellent. Normally the briefing you are about to receive would take two to three days. However, we will start yours now. By the time we land in Colorado Springs tomorrow you will all have finished your briefing and be ready for your initial mission planning. The first packet I am going to give you is the specifications for the vehicles you will be taking into combat. All of you will be fighting these vehicles so familiarize yourselves with them. They are all new vehicles - fresh off the lines - so you will have to get them ready for combat." Major Davis started handing out data pads and paperwork to the different squadron members: data pads to the vehicle commanders, and paperwork to everyone else. One of the infantry squad commanders shouted a question to the major.

"Who are we going to be fighting in Colorado?" Everyone perked up because with everything swirling so quickly we just hadn't thought about that.

"We can talk about that once we are over U.S. soil, but I will tell you two things. First, they are not Americans, and second, you have as of right now been officially re-designated. You are no longer members of the 3rd ACR; you are now members of the most secret unit in the world. Welcome to Stargate Command." At that, the major took the unit insignia off of the questioning sergeant's shoulder and held up a strange insignia. The insignia looked like a pyramid with a small orb at the top, the earth in the background surrounded by stars.

"For now you will be designated SG-24 but you all have the distinction of being the first mechanized members of this unit. Once we are over U.S. soil I can tell you more, but suffice to say you will be designated as ACS-1 once this mission is over and we can design and print the appropriate insignias and such."

Then he walked back into the crew area while we began poring over the new vehicles we would be fighting soon. As the infantry squad leader for my Bradley, I had received a data pad as well as the paperwork that the rest of my men had received. Everyone had spent the last ten minutes or so moving around and getting back into their vehicle teams and to study the paperwork. It was a raucous time as all of us began to wonder at what we had gotten ourselves into. All of the vehicles that we were being assigned were about a foot and a half narrower than our old ones, but where the engines had been in our vehicles now sat what I could only describe as a strange new power source, which the papers described as something called "Naquadah". Apparently it was much more powerful and, apparently, very volatile because there was a lot more armor around it than even the ammo bays on the M1's. In addition it looked like the lost weight was made up for by additional weight from the new armor. Apparently they had taken the Chobham armor that we loved so much and added some of this new thing they called "trinium." Most of the other items on the Bradleys and Abrams were the same as those on the M-125's but had seen some significant improvements. If I had read this correctly, they could now keep up with even the fast speed of the tanks and had the armor they needed to protect themselves. This could be a very good thing.

"Gentlemen, we have passed over Hawaii and I can now hand out the basic briefing materials. There are much more specific items in the paperwork that I want all of you to read, but I will start this by saying that in the Second World War we recovered an artifact from the Egyptian desert. We did not know what it was and, until ten years ago, we did not understand how it worked. A Dr. Daniel Jackson was able to decipher the writing on the device and other artifacts recovered with it. This is what we now know of as the 'Stargate.' This device," he paused as he held up a full-page picture from the briefing book. "Is designed to open a stable artificial wormhole from one of these Gates to another Gate at the other end." Everyone stopped looking down and talking quietly to stare at him. Most of us had seen Wormhole X-treme and had some idea of what he was saying. Myself, I had enough knowledge (I was half way through a Master's degree in physics) to know it was possible in some theoretical universe.

"Do you mean to tell us that we have a device that can take people to other worlds?" I asked, fully expecting to get some snickers and a no from the major.

"That is exactly what I am saying, and you are all now a part of the command that uses this Gate." Everyone had started to chuckle or smile until he finished his sentence, and then we all again stopped talking and stared, surprised. "It is a lot to take in. You all need to read the specifics and become acquainted with the idea. This will not be the last shocking revelation that you will have today, so get past this one as quick as you can. I am having the crew pass out lunch. Take an hour break, read the specifics, eat some lunch, think this through a little, and we will talk more in an hour." For the next hour we all ate and read. There was very little talking as all of us were trying to wrap our minds around the Stargate and all it meant for our worldview.

"Gentlemen, I need your attention!" The major shouted. We all turned our eyes to him. "As part of the Stargate program, we have been traveling to other worlds for nearly ten years and as such we have fought and defeated several enemies. The specifics are in this next packet on the data pads that we will be handing out to you shortly. The rest of your briefings will be on these, as we could not risk any more of this information being disseminated on paper. The data pad you receive will be yours for the duration of the time that you are a member of this command. This data pad will be with you at all times while you are on base. It will never leave the base so it will not go off world with you or off post with you. They are encrypted and as such are not yours to play with or mistreat." He stopped talking and started handing out the data pads. "When you receive your pads, it will ask you to input your name and social and then it will take a fingerprint. This is how you will access your pad from now on." Once I received my pad, it was a relatively easy thing to access it. The pad began to play a video right away. I and the rest of my men quickly inserted the headphones we had received and listened to the rest of the briefing. We learned about the Goa'uld and their minions, the Jaffa. We learned about the Free Jaffa and the actions of Teal'c. It was rather shocking to think that Americans had been interacting and operating with aliens.

"I have to go. Sorry I can't stay," General Carter said, standing. She walked to the edge of the deck while we all stood to tell her goodbye and she vanished in a column of light. It was after eleven now and we moved off of the deck and sat back down at a table under a young sequoia tree near the edge of the lake. It was a beautiful day and sitting at the edge of the water provided a nice breeze.

"Are you not recording this?" General Laird asked.

"There is no need. As a Cylon, I have an eidetic memory and can remember every word you speak. I will write all of that down later."

"I didn't realize that you guys were the first ones with the data pads. I was pretty busy at that point though." O'Neill said as he thought back to that time.

"You were busy with the planning of the coming mission at that point, I think. I am sure that was one of Walter's things," Laird interjected.

"Yep, that was one of Walter's pet projects. He was trying to get us out from under the mountain of paper we were generating. I was just happy to finally have that huge stack of files off of my desk. At least, until I realized that none of the work was actually gone." They both smiled at that.

"As I was saying…

The rest of the flight went fairly smoothly. From that point on we had kept our headphones in and Major Davis had briefed us over an intercom that was apparently piped into our data pads. It was quite a leap for us, but we all took in the new information. We learned about the Ori and their craziness as well as their very real incursion into our Galaxy. We were also very shocked to learn that we had an earth battle cruiser or two in the arsenal. Hard to imagine that we had space capable ships. What was the point of NASA again? I was also a bit surprised to find that we had not advanced further with our basic weapons. With everyone else getting new stuff I figured we would at least have fancy new ray guns or something. When we passed over Colorado Springs, I was surprised they did not have a big airfield with all of our equipment there waiting for us, or some type of indication of an armored cavalry squadron waiting to deploy. Really all we got to see from the air was a scenic view of the Air Force Academy and the few trainers that they had there for students. The landing itself was rather abrupt as the airfield was not meant for airplanes as big as ours.

"Gentlemen, we are about to land in Colorado Springs. We will quickly board four buses on the tarmac. From there, we will be going directly to NORAD, which is a short drive from here into the mountains. Before we go into the facilities, you will all be given one hour to get whatever personal items you may need or make whatever phone calls you like. From that point until the end of the upcoming mission you will have no further contact with the outside world. Does everyone understand all of this?" Davis finished as we were touching down. Everyone gave the "OK" and stood up to ready their personal equipment. The ride in was uneventful through the quiet forest. It was hard to believe the enormity of what we were approaching because of how quiet the area seemed. Fortunately for all of us there was a large shopping center not far from the post because we all needed some things after having spent months in the sand and grime of Iraq. For most of us, though, it was phone call time. A few of us were smart and went inside the Wally World to buy the prepaid cells rather than waiting at the pay phones. Personally I had been married for a couple years at this point and I needed to let my wife know that I wasn't going to be home for a bit. Since we were not allowed to tell anyone about the new command or where we were located, all I could tell her was that we wouldn't be coming home as planned and that I would call her again as soon as I could. We both cried a bit as our anniversary had been coming up and we had plans to spend a nice weekend together. With that done, we were all quickly back onboard the bus and on the way to the post. Again, very non-descript although I will say the checkpoint at the post was definitely more intense than anything you would normally see stateside. What we did finally see was a large hangar door in the side of the mountain, which opened to reveal several more of our vehicles inside.

"I need everyone out of the bus and in formation in three minutes," Major Davis shouted. Everyone got up and exited the buses. "Attention!" He kept shouting and all of us snapped to attention. He quickly issued marching commands and we were off to those same hangers that we had seen on the way into the post. It was surprising how large the hangar was. It was easily three hundred meters wide and at least that long with fairly wide support columns throughout. On the floor they had painted streets and parking spaces. Our few dozen vehicles did not look very imposing inside the structure but we were all excited to see these new pieces of equipment. I also noticed that the two mortar support vehicles looked different. As Major Davis brought the squadron to a halt and turned the formation in front of the vehicles, several civilians came up to the formation and waited for Major Davis to release us. He did not do that though as General O'Neill came from the elevators at the back of the parking area and addressed Major Davis. Major Davis turned to the General and relinquished command of the squadron.

"At ease!" General O'Neill called out in a very commanding voice. "My name is General Jack O'Neill. I am commander of this base and all off-world activities that go on here. I started my career in special operations serving in several different area of the world. In the last ten years I have been a member of this command. I am an original member of both Stargate Command and SG-1 and, as such, I care a great deal about what happens to this command and all of the people who work for me. It is for this very reason that you are here today. Right now we have an off-world team that has been taken captive and we cannot allow them to remain prisoners. For too long we have been a small infantry command. That ends today. I am not one for long speeches; those of you who get to know me will understand, but know this: if all of you stay in this command you will be joining a family. A family that is not easily broken." At that General O'Neill stopped talking and called us to attention to pass us off to another officer.

"I am Colonel Chekov. I am acting XO of this command and today I am in charge of your orientation and preparation. You will report by squads to the three load bay elevators at the back of this hangar. From there, you will be directed to your temporary quarters where you will spend ten minutes stowing your personal items. Anyone going off world will stow all personal items up to and including wedding rings and anything else identifiable. After those ten minutes you will report with your squads to the designated areas for your initial load out. Once that is done you will have time to eat while your leaders will be receiving the mission briefing." He paused for a moment to let us internalize our orders. "Fall out." While his heavy Russian accent made it apparent where he was from, we all understood perfectly what he expected and we all moved quickly.

The ride down the central elevator was longer than I expected. Once the technicians explained that we were fifty floors further down inside the mountain it made more sense. The cavern that the elevator dropped into was easily as big as the one up above with the same thick support columns and two-and-a-half-story ceiling. The Abrams Tanks should fit easily in here. On both sides of the main hangar there were doors that we saw people coming in and out of, but at the front and center of the room there were floor to ceiling blast doors that were easily thirty feet wide. These were the doors that we marched though. What we saw next though was amazing; as the doors began to slide open, we could see there was this great ring inside and it was spinning. I now know of course that it was the Stargate, but at the time I just thought it was fascinating and a bit scary because the technician that was leading us through the base stopped us just as the ring stopped turning and this amazing swoosh of water came rushing out at us and then reversed itself and went back into the ring and somehow stayed there, flat inside the ring. It scared us all at first. The technician smiled at us and explained what it was and I was again shocked by the reality of what we were experiencing. Standing not sixty feet from this ring, we were all amazed again as three men in what I could only describe at the time as medieval-looking armor walked out of the pool of water (event horizon, I thought, as my science background kicked in).

"Close your mouths, Gentlemen" General O'Neill said, smiling as he entered the room from the opposite side. He had come out of another blast door, passing a technician team installing some sort of large TV on the wall. The man who as at the head of the group of medieval-armored men spoke directly to the General.

"I see you have made some changes, O'Neill?" He remarked.

"Yes, Master Bra'tac, and several more changes I think you will like. I'll get to those in time, but we need to talk right away." O'Neill motioned for Bra'tac to follow him, but stopped mid-way through the room and turned to face me "Sergeant Laird, accompany us please. I need the perspective of an NCO in this briefing. You're Ranger-trained aren't you?" The General asked me directly.

"Yes Sir, two years in the regiment with Halo and air assault," I responded as I motioned for the Second in my squad to take over my load out since I obviously wouldn't be going with them.

"That will work. I know you're not the senior NCO, but you can brief him when we are done," O'Neill said, motioning all of us to follow him. It was a short walk through the blast door, a few yards, and then up a flight of stairs into a briefing room that seemed fairly small. With everyone apparently now in attendance, the briefing started. It seemed SG-1 had been taken captive on a Free Jaffa world. They had thought they were going to a planet that was still deciding what they wanted to do about the Ori. When they arrived the Ori had already moved in – evidentially peaceably, because they were taken captive shortly after they arrived and had been handed over to the Ori on the planet. UAV's had been launched and they were in a well-fortified location with only moderate lines of defense.

"O'Neill, I am sure we can get your people, but this place is too well defended to take with a few SG teams," Bra'tac said when the Intel specialist finished showing everyone the UAV footage.

"I have finally been given some of the resources that I have been asking for. As of now we have a Mechanized Infantry squadron. I am tired of playing small ball with everyone." General O'Neill paused to take a sip of his water. "Major Sheridan, do you think you can accomplish this mission? I don't want a simple extraction; I want the team extracted and I want this place leveled." He finished, waiting for a response.

"Without a doubt, yes Sir. With those locator beacons that you spoke about, finding our people shouldn't be a problem and with our sappers and two tactical teams it should happen quickly. The rest is simply a matter of arms strength. I would like to recommend that we have some air assets, Sir," the major stated.

"We've talked about this before your team arrived. Without a viable option in space I don't see how we could do that," one of the technicians said from his seat at the table.

"We don't need them to come in that way. I was thinking about three choppers, a Kiowa and two Apaches. We could simply collapse two of the four rotors and put the choppers on sleds that could be dragged behind the last three vehicles through the gate. Once on the other side the pilots could simply push their rotors out, release them from the sleds, and off they go," Major Sheridan replied.

"That could work. What about getting them back, though?" The technician asked. General O'Neill piped up at that.

"We can run the same operation in reverse, but if you have to make a fast evac you can simply destroy the vehicles, acceptable losses. And to answer your next question, Major, your mortar team is getting the briefing now, but those vehicles have been modified with a new system that we have been working on." Then General O'Neill motioned for another technician who stood up as the screens on the wall came to life with a modified version of our M125 mortar carriers.

"What we have done is remove the mortar and all of its components from the vehicle and replaced them with a modified CWIS system. The Radom that normally stands on top of the weapon has been replaced with a smaller version of the Aegis radar system, essentially painted onto the top of the carrier while the computer parts can now easily fit inside a shoe box. We have fitted both of your mortar carriers with these test systems so that you will now have three-kilometer-wide air suppression," the technician said and sat back down. We were all a little surprised. I whistled softly to myself. Master Bra'tac leaned over and asked in my ear

"What is this CWIS?" I had to smile at that. Apparently they had not told Master Bra'tac very much about our capabilities.

"You will see soon enough, but suffice to say if they attempt to fly anything within three miles of us it will cease to exist." Master Bra'tac's eyes got wide at that.

"Indeed," he said, sounding impressed.

The rest of the briefing went fairly smoothly with everyone working out the basics of a battle plan. Where we would ingress and egress and all of that stuff worked itself out until finally we came to the part where the General involved me. They had been discussing how we might include the Jaffa that would accompany us. The major was insisting that they would stay at the rear and come up only after the mission had been accomplished, while master Bra'tac argued they should be part of the fighting and rescue of SG-1, since apparently Teal'c was part of their leadership council. Major Sheridan finally relented and allowed them to accompany my team since we would be one of the three squads that would be breaching the compound and rescuing the SG team.

Once the briefing was over we all got an hour to get our squads together and check load outs and give some basic mission information. An hour later, we met back as a tactical team and began going over the specifics of the mission and where each squad would fit into the overall plan.

"Major, we need some time to set up our vehicles and familiarize ourselves," I said as soon as the commanding officer had finished his briefing and we had started going through our feedback and mission adjustments.

"Every hour we spend here is an hour that SG-1 stays caught behind enemy lines. We simply don't have enough time to do that. General O'Neill wanted us through the gate in an hour," he answered, obviously feeling the pressure between preparation, mission readiness, and operational urgency.

"Sir, I understand all of that, but how will they feel if we show up on this planet and fall all over ourselves or get everyone killed because someone changed a dial or altered where they put the main gun rounds and didn't tell us? Sir, It seems to me that some familiarization is imperative," I countered. Bra'tac spoke up.

"I must confess, I agree with the sergeant. We would never send a warrior into battle with a new piece of equipment and not give him time to learn its use. You have agreement from the Free Jaffa on this matter," he said as Major Sheridan stood up.

"I have to go talk to General O'Neill. I want everyone to go now and prepare your teams and equipment. Move as though we will be mission ready in one hour but I will come and let everyone know if that timeframe does change. I will see all of you in the upper vehicle hangar." He moved quickly out of the room moving towards General O'Neill's office. The rest of us moved off towards the upper vehicle prep area.

"I didn't know that Master Bra'tac favored that plan. If I had known that I would have agreed with the major much more quickly. I very nearly relieved the major of command for insubordination after that conversation," General O'Neill said. We all got up and moved inside General Laird's house since it was mid-day and had begun to get very hot. Apparently the General had some help in the house because there were already sandwiches prepared and waiting on the counter along with a small tub of General O'Neill's favorite beers.

"Master Bra'tac was surprised at how out of sorts the major was after that meeting. He was, however, trying to take in the new vehicles that we were getting ready. I was surprised that he did not know more about our capabilities," General Laird explained.

"He had never asked us about any of that. He had also never stayed here for very long. Teal'c could have told him much more because he had been here and seen a few things," Jack said thoughtfully. "I wish I could have been there when he saw the new Abrams for the first time." General O'Neill was definitely hiding a laugh behind his smile.

"Yeah, that was kind of fun," General Laird chuckled.

It had been a busy day so far, but after the briefing we all assembled in the upper vehicle hangar. Master Bra'tac met my squad after a short break. He brought with him three of his warriors.

"Sergeant Laird, I have been told that you will familiarize my men and me with the equipment we will be bringing to battle," he remarked as he approached.

"That is correct. We can start with the Bradley IFV, or our battle taxi, as we sometimes call it." I smiled as I turned around from where we had been standing, directly behind my Bradley. I pushed the hatch release as the rear door began to lower. "This is the crew compartment. As you can see it is not incredibly large but it will meet our needs." I showed them where each squad member would sit. "Above our heads is where we will stow your staff weapons, though if I had my way we would re-equip you."

"We have used the staff weapons for hundreds of years. They serve us well," Bra'tac said and two of his warriors smirked at the comment.

"I will have to introduce you to a few of our weapons, Master Bra'tac. Gentlemen, if you would like to join me, the driver and I are going to run this vehicle out to the gunnery range," I concluded as I stepped back out of the vehicle to retrieve the driver and gunner.

"What weapons does this vehicle have? Is this the only kind of vehicle we will be taking into battle? I heard General O'Neill say something about a tank," Bra'tac asked from where he now stood outside the fighting vehicle.

"You will see in a minute. The tank drivers took their vehicles out a little bit ago to run them through their paces," I said as the driver arrived.

"Gentlemen, come on in and sit down. Sergeant, our gunner is working on getting the correct load out for the vehicle, so can you work the guns for our live fire?" My driver asked while he ushered all of us into the vehicle and buttoned up the rear hatch.

"Where do you stow your field equipment?" One of the Jaffa warriors asked. The driver put the vehicle in motion and also signaled Master Bra'tac to move up to the front of the crew area.

"Master Bra'tac, please step up those steps - that is the vehicle commanders cupola. It will give you a good view of what is about to happen. And to answer your question, we attach our equipment to the outside of the vehicle. There just isn't enough room to stow anything other than ourselves and our weapons inside." The driver finished as master Bra'tac stepped up into the commander's seat. The view itself was quite pretty. The base was fairly conventional but the hastily prepared firing range was further around the mountain. Since there were a few miles to cover before we reached the firing range, I took some time and explained a few things about the Bradley and how the crew worked together to use the vehicle. Master Bra'tac expressed his surprise that we had a vehicle such as this. These sorts of vehicles had fallen out of fashion with the Jaffa over a thousand years ago apparently. As we pulled into the firing range on the other side of the mountain, we were amazed to find not only our crew of tanks waiting for us but also a whole group of old, derelict tanks that had been left for target practice.

"Master Bra'tac, go ahead and put in your ear plugs," I ordered, sighting in the bushmaster getting it ready to fire.

"I have been told the new rounds we have are Naquada and depleted uranium mixtures. I still don't have a good grasp of what Naquada is, so you will want to see what these do," I said as I passed one of the sabot rounds that we were about to fire to the Jaffa warrior who expressed wonder at how large the bullets were. At that, we let loose our first short burst from the bushmaster and watched a derelict M60 tank disintegrate under the short barrage.

"They weren't kidding about those new rounds. Awesome," my driver quipped, watching the live fire. "The other things I want to see are the new Tows. Apparently they are now fire and forget so we don't have to stop and stand there," he added.

"Raising Tows now. Firing in three!" At the count of three, we fired the one Tow we had in the box and watched another M60 disappear in a flash of light. _I think I could get to like these new toys_, I thought to myself. Master Bra'tac asked if we could exit the vehicle.

"I would like to see these other vehicles as well," Bra'tac said to me while I escorted the Jaffa out the back door of the vehicle.

"Gentlemen, stop right here. This is about to get very loud," I said before the first tank on the line fired its cannon. This particular tank was right next to us and it startled me a little but I would swear at least one of the Jaffa warriors let out a small scream as the concussion from the blast pushed us all back just a touch. This time Bra'tac was beyond surprised when he watched the next M60 not just implode but have its turret literally ripped off the top of the tank and tossed up into the air. I smiled at his reaction.

"And to think it can do that while on the move from over three kilometers out," I finished.

"How is that possible? We can track things from our space vehicles but we cannot guide our large weapons fire."

"The miracle of modern computers. We can also operate in total darkness," I bragged as I handed him a pair of night vision goggles. "The vehicles are all fitted with a very similar system that allows the vehicles to operate in darkness as if it were day. We never stop the fight. Once a battle begins it doesn't stop until the enemy is gone. That is part of our advantage; our enemy must stop and rest, with proper support we don't." Bra'tac seemed amazed by that as well.

"How is it that I have never seen O'Neill with these?" He wondered.

"I am willing to bet that there are a lot of things O'Neill has never shown you. He has probably never shown you one of these," I added, pulling out the Barret fifty-caliber sniper rifle from behind one of the rows of seats. "One member of my team is trained as an army sniper. This weapon will break engine blocks and destroy small infantry vehicles. It will also kill people from more than a mile away." I paused.

"Impressive. How can someone shoot a weapon this size from such a distance? And with such accuracy?" Bra'tac asked.

"In our forces, we have some soldiers who are very accurate with their staff weapons but nothing like this. Something like this could be very useful," he decided.

"That is above my pay grade, but you are more than welcome to accompany my trooper who will use this in the field. We also have trained sappers. They're expert breaching specialists. It is their job to breach doors and other things that need to be opened," I explained as I showed them a small door breaching charge. The charge was in a c-shape so as to go around a doorknob. "This is what we call a 'shaped charge.' What it does is shape the explosion so that the water in the pack here is pushed through the door and breaks off the locking mechanism…very effective." At that, I finished as my driver ducked his head out the back of the vehicle.

"Two hours till go time. We need to get back and make final preparations," he said and pulled his head back inside. The tanks had already turned around and were making their way back to the hangar. It was amusing to watch the Jaffa as they watched the Bradleys and Abrams take off down the road. Clearly they were not used to mechanized warfare. They were in for a surprise.

The next two hours were electric. It was obvious that everyone was both excited and scared as we got ourselves ready to go through the wormhole that only two days ago we hadn't even known existed. Now we were getting ready to travel to another world in revamped vehicles that were new and exciting. We were as nervous as always, though, as we knew we were going into battle against we knew not what. We donned our body armor and loaded all of our magazines and combat gear onto our vehicles. Most of us were offered the P-90's that the SG teams apparently loved, but except for some of the M-4 users we all stuck to our heavy weaponry. I personally kept my M-4 with under slung shotgun and various other accessories.

"Alright men, remember this could take as much as two days to complete so make sure you are packed appropriately," I instructed all of my men as they secured their rucks to the side of the Bradley.

"Sergeant Laird, we are ready to join you," Master Bra'tac said. He and his two men gave us their staff weapons, which we handed across into the Bradley and stowed above our heads. While we were stowing those they too brought rucksacks with provisions that were slung onto the side of the Bradley.

"Because of the size of your staff weapons you cannot get them out as you exit the vehicle. If you would like we can provide you with handguns for the interim," I offered.

"Our Zats should work just fine for the situation," one of the Jaffa retorted.

"While they do stun, we will be moving too quickly to have a stunned warrior get back up and shoot one of us from behind. What I would suggest is that each of you take a handgun and use it as you exit the vehicle. When we exit we may very well do so under fire and you might need to defend yourself while retrieving your staff weapons." I paused, watching the sour expression on Bra'tac's face. "I only suggest. You do what makes the most sense to you." With that, I stopped talking and left to chat with the major in command of our new SG team.

"All right, everyone. I know this is the first time any of us have been through a Stargate, so there is no established routine here. We did train for this a bit, though, and I know that all of you will perform admirably. Remember, everyone, single file through the gate and everyone fan out into a circular defensive formation once through the Gate. Happy hunting, people." The major turned as General O'Neill walked up to the assembled group of vehicle commanders.

"I know that you don't know the men and woman that you are rescuing and you have no experience with this enemy, but know this: the hostages are a valuable part of this family. Bring them home, please." Then General O'Neill backed away from the group and signaled for the major to step aside with him. I didn't find out until later, but apparently he told the major that if they were dead, then we had to recover their bodies. A little morbid I guess. It took another half hour, but finally we had all of our vehicles and equipment lined up and ready to go in the lower hangar – three tanks in front with my Bradley the first in line behind them, which afforded us a good view of the gate and the small UAV hanging from the ceiling ready to be lowered down once the gate was open. The line snaked behind us and to the left, twenty-three tracked vehicles and two Apaches on sleds towed behind our M125's. With a loud swoosh, the event horizon of the wormhole exploded out and settled to rest within the Stargate.

"Release the UAV," General O'Neill called over the loudspeaker into the Gate Room. With the blast doors all the way open now, we could see the window of the control room and the sandbagged temporary gun emplacements to each side of the blast door. Within moments the UAV was lowered from the ceiling and launched from its rail. It got through to the other side more quickly than I expected (something about the other side of the galaxy just seemed like it should take a while). After a few moments our view screens came to life with the UAV feed from the other side of the Gate. The ground around the Gate was exactly like we had been briefed. The Gate sat in what was essentially a gradually sloped sinkhole with built-up berms around the Gate. They normally would have made for excellent positions to defend the planet against small and medium infantry assaults, but they were going to be deadly for the enemy today. Those same defensive positions were well manned by what appeared to be both Free Jaffa and Ori warriors. What we did not expect, though, was a small squad of Ori with one of their Priors standing in front of the Gate.

"Gentlemen, I want the first two tanks through the Gate and the rest of you ready to go." We heard the major call over the vehicle intercoms from his command vehicle towards the middle of our formation. I watched from my position as vehicle commander while the two tanks both lurched forward from the vehicle hangar, guided by the lines that had been painted in bright orange on the floor, where they narrowed and finally ceased at the edge of the Gate itself. The first tank disappeared quickly as it gained speed going into the Gate. What was surprising was the effect at the other end as the first tank burst from the Gate at easily twenty miles per hour. It looked as though the Prior had some sort of force field that was overwhelmed by the sixty-eight ton tank. The bright orange bubble around the Prior simply popped and he was thrown aside from the tank as most of the squad around him was either squashed under the treads or bounced off of the frontal armor and left unconscious on the side. The second tank came through just as quickly and veered slightly to the left, as he should have, and while he didn't plan it he ended the life of the Prior as his left track rolled right over the him and his little arms popped off like a GI Joe doll run over by a car. Mayhem quickly ensued as it always does. Both tanks now had flanking positions on the Gate and began raking the berms to their front with their M240 machine guns while looking for their first target with the main gun. From the UAV vantage point it was clear to see the enemy was initially angry when the first two tanks came through and the enemy immediately began firing on them. They were surprised to find that both tanks simply soaked up their weapons fire. As they were bringing up their Jaffa staff cannons, both tanks let loose a round toward each staff cannon at near point-blank range. The blast from each round hitting the staff cannons and their accompanying gun carriage was enough to seriously injure many Jaffa that were near them. Both tanks lurched forward again and moved to pursue while their commanders unbuttoned and took charge of their fifty caliber machine guns. The rest of us quickly came through the Gate as the Ori and Jaffa fled. The bushmasters above the Bradleys made quick work of most of the defensive perimeters that were left. The few enemy soldiers that had fled had made it to secondary defensive positions and were destroyed by main gun rounds from the tanks. Within thirty minutes we had the area secure and had brought the M125's through with their Apaches in tow. The pilots and a few soldiers spent the next bit getting them ready to fly while our UAV scanned the skies looking for more enemy soldiers. The UAV didn't last much longer, though, as it was blasted out of the sky by the first round of Jaffa death gliders making a run at us before we could get set up. What they didn't know was that our tow anti-tank missiles were now also able to track and hit targets in the air. All five of the death gliders met quick ends as they were engaged and destroyed by our Bradleys.

We had now been sitting for several hours inside the house; lunch had been left far behind us and dinner was fast approaching. From the front room I could hear a lady's voice that could only be that of General O'Neill's wife, General Carter.

"Gentlemen, you can't stay here all day. Remember Jack, you promised me a nice dinner and a movie tonight," she said as she greeted all of us and glared at Jack, who looked very amused. He quickly got up and thanked us both for allowing him to listen in on the conversation.

"Jack, feel free to come back tomorrow and hear the rest of the conversation," General Laird said, shaking his hand.

"I guess that's it for the day, then," I said as I too got up and shook hands with the Generals.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay for dinner?" General Laird asked.

"Thank you for the offer but I have a report to file and my children would like to see their dad tonight, even if it is just a hologram." We then both thanked each other and made plans for tomorrow after breakfast. Tomorrow I would get the rest of the story. For now though I would get to mull over all we had talked about.

Author's note: Thanks for reading the first chapter. Like I said in my short chapter three of Rise of the Phoenix, this will be a collection of shorts that will all fall within the Rare Friends AU. Some of these stories will be single chapters and some like this one will be more than that. I would love to hear your input on story topics and what you think of these in general


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